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Caribbean
Student's Association: At Southern Illinois University, members of the
Caribbean Students' Association have created a website to promote themselves and their
cultures. What I found most interesting (and what the link here points to) was their
section about the islands' cultures. It provides other links to information about
art, literature, music, and food in the Caribbean.
Barbados Photo
Gallery: This site contains an assortment of information about the cultural
and social aspects of life in Barbados. It contains information about daily Bajan
news, which is useful for studying the modern aspects of the island. It also
addresses the artists, music, and culture and contains an extensive photo gallery.
Caribnet: Caribnet
is another good, non-tourist-oriented site. It contains some historical information,
but the more useful feature seems to be its collection of links. It connects out to
essential sites about Barbados's government, foreign affairs, etc. One link goes to
an interactive map of the island.
Postimperial
and Postcolonial Literature in English: George Landow's website (created by
one of his students, David Lichtenstein) focuses on the Caribbean as a whole, both
culturally, economically, and literarily. He does have a well-developed section
about Barbados' statistics, and another that examines how postcolonial literature affects
both Bajan literature and Caribbean literature in general. He warns that the
site is still under construction. I found the Themes page especially useful:
it links to several articles on the Caribbean as a whole. It also contains an
extensive bibliography about the study of Caribbean texts. The site focuses
primarily on prose works.
The
Corpus of Written British Creole: A User's Guide: Contains some very
useful information on how Caribbean Creole language is beginning to find its way into
British literature. Although the focus centers around Britain, it's still a useful
site for affirming Caribbean nationhood.
Crossed Wires, Noisy Signals:
(link dead as of 1/26/02 -snh)
This links to Barry Eidlin's Honors Thesis, "Crossed Wires,
Noisy Signals: Language, Identity, and Resistance in Caribbean Literature" in
Comparitive Literature at Oberlin. He talks about the formation of a Caribbean
identity--an identity that can be seen in the music, poetry and fiction--despite the
oppressive colonial power.
African-Caribbean
Resistance Culture: Past and Contemporary: An essay by Professor
Harvey Miller at St. Mary's University. He addresses issues surrounding Caribbean
culture, looking in part at the stereotypes of carnival, marijana, etc. as a product of
tourism campaigns, simplification, and complacency. He then goes on to describe a
much more dynamic and rich culture that stems from the union of both African and European
heritage.
Trinidad
Calypso Tent: Although this site is geared toward the Trinidad/Tobago scene,
it contains a lot of useful information about calypso (kaiso) as a social form. The
site maintains audio clips so that visitors can hear the calypsonians. The site also
lists some books about calypso and features certain singers/songwriters from Trinidad.
Starapple:
While this site seems to target tourists, it also includes some very interesting
and useful information about the history of calypso
and the origins of the word "kaiso"
throughout the Caribbean.
Bajan Calypso Barn: This
site targets a commercial audience, but there are some useful links to Bajan calypsonians
and bands on the internet.
Caribinfo: An
Internet Directory with links to Caribbean-related sites. Largely commercial.
Caribbean News Agency
(CANA): CANA is headquartered in Barbados. Their mission statement
says: "To enhance integration among Caribbean peoples and between them and the
rest of the world, through the timely provision of accurate, balanced, and impartial news
and information."
Barbados.org: While
this site seems to primarily address issues with a "touristy" tone, it contains
some useful information about the island's history and culture. It provides
information about Barbados's Education
and Educational facilities, for example, (which explains more about the system of
colonial education that many writers address) as well as information about Crop Over and
the individual villages around the island.
Fun Barbados:
This site focuses primarily on tourism, but it also maintains some interesting
sections about the island's culture, history, and art. I especially recommend
looking at the Island Info
and Arts and Crafts
sections.
Bajan.org: Contains
some very general information about Barbados that doesn't seem particularly interesting in
the study of Bajan culture. But the site's one main attraction would be that it
seems to be maintained by an internet service provider in Barbados. There's also a
link to a Barbadian phone book.
Note (1/26/02):
Bajan.org has a much different look now. The information is largely
gone, replaced by the creator's personal journal. He (or she) does
live in Barbados, so the journal gives some interesting insights through
details. Perhaps the most interesting part for someone studying the
island is the Gallery
page, which features images from around the island. The journal
entries themselves are equally as fascinating, but for much different
reasons.
Note (12/19/02):
Bajan.org has gone through another change. In the author's own
words, "the purpose of this site
is to now provide facts, figures, commentary and information on the island
of Barbados, through the eyes of a few of its citizens." Makes
for a very interesting read--certainly worth looking through for a
specific viewpoint.
Interview:
An interview with Jamaican dub poet, Linton Kwesi Johnson.
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